Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method for bridging gaps in a power supply for electrical, converter-fed rail vehicles, wherein the rail vehicles are provided at both ends with current collectors for making contact with the power supply.
In rail vehicles being fed through a so-called third rail, that is to say a current rail, severe interruptions with respect to the power feeding occur, for example, in the area of points, crossings and joints. Apart from the unavoidable loss of traction force, that results in an interruption of the train power supply system which can be detected, for example, by a failure of illumination. When a gap occurs in the conductor rail, a fault detection system usually responds, which results in a discharge of storage capacitors of the power feeding circuit and an opening of a switch for the train power supply system. The consequence thereof is frequent start-ups of the drives and an increased failure rate of components such as motors, illumination, high-speed circuit breakers, charging circuit for storage capacitors and so forth. Furthermore, there is a disadvantageous period of time until the converters being used for feeding the drive motors are in operation again after the end of the gap in the conductor rail and the train power supply system is connected in the circuit again.